Authentic Bolognese Sauce

Have you ever had a real, authentic Bolognese sauce recipe? I mean an actual, honest-to-goodness Bolognese? It’s just different from a typical meat sauce for pasta: smoother, meatier, mellower and a lot richer than a typical ragu or sugo. A little goes a long way.

There is a reason that the guardians of this sauce are so strict about what is and is not an authentic Bolognese.

Much of what makes Italian cuisine so special is its skill with poverty foods. Puglians or Sardinians or the people of the Italian Alps must deal with a limited set of ingredients, and they do so with uncanny ability.

But there is no need for this in Emilia-Romagna, where Bologna lies. This region has everything. And it flaunts it. A Bolognese sauce is a crowning expression of the wealth of Italy’s breadbasket, and some version of it has been made since the 1700s.

This is a sauce with rules. It is built on a base of onion, carrot and celery. No garlic. Nor does it have lots of herbs in it. I love lots of herbs in a meat sauce, but that’s not a Bolognese. The sauce contains dairy products. Tomato, while present, is not the star of the sauce. Meat is. And to make a real Bolognese, it must cook a long, long time.

An authentic Bolognese sauce recipe is all about the meat. Emilia-Romagna is a rich region, and this is a rich sauce. Beef is king here, and the sauce is usually a celebration of the cow: beef, veal, milk and butter. But pork is often used, too. And that’s where we start getting into the endless Bolognese Debate — what is, and is not, a “true” Bolognese sauce?

Every cook has a personal version. The few constants I’ve just mentioned above. Some have only beef. Some a mix of meats. Some pork. A few, like this one, wild boar. Some Bolognese recipes use a little pancetta, prosciutto or chicken liver, too.

One point of contention is tomato. I use just a little, but most American versions make this a tomato sauce with meat. That may taste nice, but it’s not a Bolognese. I suspect Americans do this because we were first exposed to a sauce sorta-kinda like this by Italians from Southern Italy, where tomato-heavy meat sauces are more common.

Mushrooms, usually porcini, do have a place in an authentic Bolognese sauce. I use dried ones here. Broth is yet another debating point. Many recipes use beef broth, some use water. I used wild boar broth to go with the meat.

Wine? Yes, or no. Your choice. White or red both work.

Photo by Holly A. Heyser

What pasta you serve it on is also hotly debated. By far the most common is homemade tagliatelle, which is a little like linguine. But other pasta shapes are seen, too.

Curiously, spaghetti — the most common pasta used with Bolognese in America — is almost never used with this sauce in Italy. Again, I think using spaghetti is an influence from Italian-Americans from the south, where dried pasta is more commonly used.

Do you need to follow all these rules when you make your own Bolognese? I hope you do, because the result is unlike anything else you’ve ever tasted. Even if you use other meats, such as venison or hare or duck, following these guidelines will make an unforgettable pasta sauce.

But the Italian Food Police will not come breaking down your door if you add a little of this or a little of that to your liking. Improvisation is, after all, very Italian.

Authentic Bolognese Sauce

Don't try to make this sauce on a weeknight. It takes a long time to come together, and the time spent slowly simmering really makes this sauce special. But fear not, it keeps in the fridge for up to 10 days, and freezes well. It is a perfect sauce to make on a weekend and eat after work all week. I used wild boar here, but any meat will work. Beef, veal and pork are all traditional, but game meats like venison, bear, ground duck or even rabbit or hare would be good.

Prep Time20mins

Cook Time4hrs

Total Time4hrs20mins

Course: Pasta

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: 8people

Author: Hank Shaw

Ingredients

4tablespoonsunsalted butter

1cupminced onion

1cupminced carrot

1cupminced celery

2poundsground boar,pork, beef or other meat

1ouncedried porcini,reconstituted in 1 cup hot water and chopped

1 6-ouncecan tomato paste

1cuppork broth,beef broth or water

1cupred or white wine

1cupmilk

1/2nutmeg,grated or 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Salt and black pepper to taste

Pasta(tagliatelle, penne, etc)

Grated cheese for garnish

Instructions

Heat the butter over medium-high heat in a large, heavy pot like a Dutch oven. Add the onion, celery and carrots and cook gently for 5 to 8 minutes, stirring often. Do not brown them. Sprinkle a little salt over the veggies as they cook.

When the vegetables are soft, stir in the chopped porcini and tomato paste and allow everything to cook for 3 or 4 minutes, again, stirring often. When the tomato paste begins to turn the color of brick, add the ground meat, the porcini soaking water and the broth. Bring to a simmer.

Allow this to cook down over medium-low heat. Take your time here and resist the urge to do this over higher heat. Stir from time to time. When the liquid has mostly evaporated, add the wine and repeat the process. When that has mostly evaporated, add the milk, nutmeg and black pepper and stir well. Bring back to a simmer and add salt to taste. Let this cook until it is the consistency you want.

When you add the milk to the sauce, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add enough salt to make it taste like the sea. Once the Bolognese sauce has thickened, add the pasta and cook until its al dente.

To serve, put the pasta in a large bowl and add a healthy ladle of sauce. Toss to combine. Give everyone their portion, then top with a small ladle's worth of sauce. Grate the cheese over the top and serve.

Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet's largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

First of all thank you for the explanation on Bolognese I was in that group of Americans that thought it was tomato sauce with meat. This recipe is fantastic results are phenomenal. I made it with ground black bear and let me tell you it was as good as any bolognese I’ve had in a quality Italian restaurant. I avoided the temptation to try to make this happen too quickly. Started prep at 11:30am and had dinner at 5:00pm. Patience is key, the part that stands out to me is the nutmeg. Initially it did not make sense however as the recipe progressed it became logical. Follow the directions on this one and you’ll be rewarded. I would not hesitate to use any ground red meat. Thanks again Hank spot on as usual.

Hey team we had this in Tuscany one night near Greve and it was so unbelievably good that I found another nearby restaurant wnd did a repeat. Wild boar, wild Porcini, those sweet Italian onions and everything else you mentioned, no garlic. I dream of going back one day for a second repeat of the two nights dinners.

Just made this dish with javelina that I shot on a trip to Marfa, Texas. Outstanding recipe! Javelina isn’t as bad as its reputation, but it definitely takes a little bit of work to make it taste good, and this was an excellent use for it.

I made this last weekend and it was delicious! Rich and meaty. I used a combination of ground pork, beef, and veal. I didn’t have dried porcini so I used fresh button mushrooms. That probably took away some depth of flavor but it was still very good. Like you, I love nutmeg – I added a lot! 🙂

thank you, thank you, THANK YOU Hank for telling it like it is w/ Bolognese sauce. This is a dish with rules b/c of it’s history. The coolest thing about Bolognese sauce, to me, is the dish isn’t just regional to Italy (Emilia Romagna) but it’s almost regional within BOLOGNA itself! There are different tweaks to the dish depending on the family. Some have almost no tomato sauce (sometimes just a small squeeze of tomato paste at the very beginning which gets browned). like you mentioned, some use liver (which we’ve tried before and it is GOOD). some add cream. i LOVE that you used the wild boar (which is so prevalent on menus in Italy). i wish we could get that meat more easily here in the states. awesome dish – and true to the “rules”.

Thanks Michael, I should have clarified, this is wild duck, which is quite lean, especially compared to domestic. A super fatty wild duck might have 1/4″ of fat. Since I shot quite a number in a year, I tend to breast them out, and save the more shot up ones for sausage etc where I cut out the bad spots.

ian, i just used the dark meat of the duck, the stuff near the joints. that plus the liver, plus milk… made an absolutely outstanding sugo. duck is fatty. i don’t think there’s a reason to use additional fat.

i love the recipe from mediterranean diet cookbook (nancy harmon jenkins)–mita’s tuscan sugo. that one, and marcella hazan’s bolognese, set the bar for all meat sauces, though they’re quite different. i love the addition of milk (marcella does it; nancy doesn’t).

every year we cook up a bunch of ducks (domestic) and i make a hand-chopped sugo from duck meat–all the tasty bits left after butchering for confit, smoked breasts, etc. i always add the livers and hearts, too. hand chopped meat has a wonderful texture.

Federico: Yeah, I know it’s called ragu in Emilia-Romagna, but I am writing for Americans, and since there are all kinds of ragus out there — not all of them from the area around Bologna — here it’s Bolognese. And I agree about the Tuscans. This is not their sauce. 😉

Huhhhh . . . where to begin Hank. Congrats on a brilliant post on this “sauce”. My Italian friend also avers “no” to the garlic. For myself, I cannot get to where I’m completely convinced anyone “knows” this recipe, but the website link requested at this LEAVE COMMENT area has my link to Ragù alla Bolognese – What is “Meat Sauce”? Maybe we should combine forces for this ragù.

Hank, I hate to say but I will have to break your thumbs. You are letting me down, big time! It’s called ragù, not bolognese. Once upon a time I though it was possible to educate people about this trivial point. Unfortunately it turns out the trivial point is not that trivial because people just don’t wanna learn. Apparently force is needed to help the learning process.

Let’s also keep the frikkin’ tuscans out of it as well, the pox on their house. The sorry asses ain’t got a horse in this race.

Dan: Yep, I cut all my ground game with 20-30 percent pork fat. I get my pork fat from good farmers, not factory hogs, so I am cool with it. In your case I’d use a fair amount of butter to compensate for the lack of fat in the meat.

I had something like this a million years ago in a little village in the woods in northern Italy… I still remember it and the earthy papardelle they served with it. It rocked my world and I can’t wait to try the recipe… many thanks.

You had me on “no garlic”. I don’t do well with garlic and since I’ve been trying to avoid it I’ve noticed how it seems to be in everything! And in tiny little minces that you can avoid when eating! I’m going to try this your way…perhaps not with boar but some pancetta…and beef and veal.

Hi Hank I have a general question when using something like ground venison in your recipes. Do you assume some amount of fat in the venison. I grind my own venison from deer I have shot and it is extremely lean. When you describe using ground game in a recipe is there pork fat or some other fat added into the meat at some standard ratio? I have always had trouble reconciling the use of farm raised pork fat in my “clean” wild meat.